Photo of Robyn and Morris with former Soft Boys Alan "Wang-Bo" Davies and Jim Melton from Robyn's Facebook

Online review by The Glass Walking-Stick
Although Robyn Hitchcock is one of my favourite songwriters I've only seen him play live twice in nearly thirty years - once with his band The Egyptians and once with the Soft Boys. So, when he popped up at Bristol's fantastic Fleece last week I had to hit the flagstone floor of that grimy venue. This was a stripped down, mostly acoustic, set with Robyn accompanied on a handful of songs by former Egyptian Morris Windsor on percussion and some hipster called Charlie on keyboards.
After wandering into the venue almost unobserved, Robyn took to the stage to unexpectedly start with a blues song before kicking off the night properly with an atmospheric version of Egyptians classic My Wife And My Dead Wife ( "Am I the only one who sees her?" ), much to the delight of the relatively meagre audience. As ever, a Robyn Hitchcock gig is a mixture of absurdism, romance and poetry, a glimpse into his idiosyncratic world view with all the creatures and characters that lurk there. He can veer from a nostalgic I Often Dream Of Trains to a beautiful Chinese Bones ( the song of the night for me ) to the insane Victorian Squid - introduced by the comment "A lot of people are afraid of sex which is fair enough..."

Although mostly just letting the music do the talking during the solo acoustic numbers, Robyn became more talkative when his "special guests" joined him on stage and he had somebody to bounce off. ( The punters that night were very much of the standing-around-and-clapping-politely persuasion which didn't help. ) Before playing a cover of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes oddity Tiny Mongomery he remarked that Dylan was playing in Cardiff that night and was "at the comprehensible end of his cycle" at the moment, so you could hear the words when he sang... although he probably wouldn't play Tiny Montgomery. There was also much discussion of the frightening news of Phil Collins' return to music. When told that Collins was back, Robyn asked "how back?" and was told "back enough". All concerned decided that should be the title of the ex-Genesis singer's new album: "Phil Collins - Back Enough".

I had hoped for more Egyptians material but unfortunately the only song he played from Element Of Light ( my fave ) was its weakest, Winchester. Robyn mostly concentrated on more recent material, which was fine although I would have loved to hear him play Airscape or If You Were A Priest. Maybe next time?
I'm not always a huge fan of acoustic gigs but Robyn's amazing guitar playing, impeccable phrasing and alternately weird / moving lyrics make for a very enjoyable night out. After a crowd-pleasing Queen Of Eyes and a moody take on The Lizard ( "You vomit in a shed / The lizard got there first, he's dead" ) he was gone, presumably back to his own surreal, subaquatic universe. Next time he visits this planet ( or Bristol ) I'll have to try and catch him again. It's been a long 21 years since the last time...

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I phoned in advance to find out whether there would be tickets on the door, and was informed that there would be. When I got there, I soon found that the reason was that Bob Dylan was performing in Cardiff at the same time (I knew this already because the people I usually go to see RH with had gone to Cardiff.

He opened with a song I did t know which contained the lines Some things can change and (if I can read my notes correctly) referred to 1969 and 1970.

Next songs were the familiar My Wife and My Dead Wife and I Often Dream of Trains , then Devils Coachman and Saturday Groovers.

His voice was distinctly croaky at the start but warmed up through the evening.

At this point he donned a harmonica harness (with some trepidation) for I Dont Remember Guildford and assured us that Bob Dylan would not be playing it in Cardiff. It fell off during the final line, but otherwise worked well. Victorian Squid was delightful surely based on Michael Moorcock s whimsical time travel books about Mrs Underwood? The highlight of the evening for me was a spellbinding performance of Glass Hotel , far and away the best song on Eye .The last solo item was a song about Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath which I hadn't heard before.

RH, in standard issue polka dot shirt, then introduced ex-Soft Boy and regular Bristol confrere Morris Windsor, wearing a Toucan balancing a pint of Guinness on its beak shirt. Morris played various percussion instruments and sang backing vocals for the remainder of the evening. RH called for two glasses of water and a plate of olives, please (those who have been to a Fleece gig will appreciate that a packet of crisps or peanuts is about the limit of the catering department).

They sang The Wreck of the Arthur Lee (frequently played at the Fleece), Chinese Bones, Winchester, Museum of Sex (chugging in Eb ).There was a discussion of earth, wind and fire at this point, and Morris mentioned that Phil Collins was back. I didn't know he'd gone away responded Robyn; he expressed surprise that David Crosby had referred to Phil Collins as a
friend on Twitter

The next song was Alright Yeah and the set finished with Goodnight I say .

They returned with a keyboard player who was only introduced as Charli, who accompanied the set in what I thought was a rather tentative manner. After another mention of Bob Dylan they played Tiny Montgomery says hello, a distinct obscurity from the Zimmerman canon, followed by The Ghost In You, There was a discussion of Brian Ferry and Morris mentioned he had seen him at the Colston Hall recently. I'd Do Anything To Turn You On, the Crystal Ship, Queen of Eyes, a fabulous trolleybus song about travelling with his father in 1964 which I'm sure I should have recognised, Gonna See The Riverman (possibly) and finished with The Lizard.

Sorry for the scrappy nature of my notes and number of songs I didn't know.

Perhaps someone else can fill in the gaps?
- - Mike G